Rhode Island to Highlight African-American Memoir in Tours, School Curriculum: PROVIDENCE, R.I. - William J. Brown led a typical life for a free Black man in 1800s Providence. He was a shoemaker and a preacher, and through his church became a leader of the city's African-American community before dying at age 71 in 1886.
He likely would have been forgotten by history if he hadn't written a memoir, The Life of William J. Brown of Providence, R.I., published three years before his death. The book chronicles Brown's family history, including how his grandfather was brought to Rhode Island on a slave ship owned by the Brown family, for whom Brown University is named; the freeing of his father by abolitionist Moses Brown; and his own travels through the city, rubbing elbows with the White elite along the way.
Now, Brown's book is at the center of a yearlong project, funded by the Rhode Island Council on the Humanities, which seeks to raise his profile and further the public's understanding of African-American history in Rhode Island. The project will include events such as lectures and walking tours, and its organizers are asking dozens of book clubs and libraries to put the book on their reading lists this year.
